The Nation Newspaper

Tag: lagos

  • The Price of a Dream premieres in Lagos

    The Price of a Dream, a short documentary on the life of the late Captain Romeo Itima and the challenges of the maritime industry in Nigeria, was premiered at the Funplex Event Centre, Lagos. The documentary, produced by US-based producer/film-maker, Kevin Itima, encapsulates maritime issues of waterways insecurity; piracy, killings, kidnapping of vessels and environmental degradation and despoliation as well as the contributions of a man who gave his all towards surmounting the varied problems and unfortunately had to pay the ultimate price towards ensuring a better and safer Nigeria.

    The documentary dwells extensively on the life and times of the late Captain  Itima, a fulfilled mariner based in the United States who left his comfort zone and returned to Nigeria to help solve the problems of piracy and other associated crimes plaguing the Nigerian territorial waters.

    He created Global West Vessel Specialists Limited (GWVSL), a privatised maritime security company in 2009 as his contribution towards salvaging Nigeria’s maritime security domain.

    The company’s extremely high success rate in eradicating the corruption that poisoned Nigeria’s waterways brought an array of positive and negative attention.

    In the end, the love Captain Romeo had for his people along with the vision he attempted to realise for his country sealed his own fate. Late Captain Itima was allegedly killed by pirates on August 7, 2012 at Escravos, Delta State.

    Speaking at the unveiling, the Executive Producer of the documentary, Kevin Itima said, his father, Late Romeo Itima, was an inspiration and an example of a Nigerian who loved his country more than his own life.

    According to him, “Late Romeo’s unconditional love and dream of a better Nigeria required the price of his life which he paid”.

    “Although accomplished, Captain Romeo sought for more. He returned to Nigeria with the incredible amount of knowledge he had gained from his experiences and created Global West Vessel Specialists Limited, a privatised maritime security company comparable to the duties of the Coast Guard in the United States.

    “At the time, the issue of waterways insecurity was boiling and Captain Romeo, being an expert mariner decided to establish a company to combat the menace. It was his own way of contributing towards the development of the maritime industry in Nigeria.

    Unfortunately, he died a mysterious death while on duty in Escravos, Delta State”

    Romeo dared to dream about a better Nigeria and worked towards it even though it cost him his life. Anybody can dream although the price of a dream sometimes is greater than what people are willing to pay.

    “The documentary is produced not only to eulogise my father but also to encourage people that they can dare to dream. Ambition is what creates a legend and not circumstances. Though my father is no longer with us, his legacy lives on,” he said.

  • Lagos to punish two sanitation officers for ‘misconduct’

    Two Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) officers arrested last week in Apapa will be punished for alleged misconduct, Commissioner for the Environment, Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti said yesterday.

    Oduyomi Oluwakemi with Oracle Number 193886 and Ofoesuwa Oluwayemi – 194375 – were said to have conspired with some traders to display their wares on the road median.

    The officers, the commissioner said, would be dealt with in accordance with the laws to deter others.

    Durosinmi-Etti said: “Officers of L AGESC must maintain discipline and integrity in carrying out their duties, as they are ambassadors of the Lagos State Government. The state government has a policy of zero-tolerance on street trading, display of goods on road medians and roadside hawking. The government has given the LAGESC officials the mandate to effectively clamp down on all violators of the environmental laws. It is disheartening to discover that some officers still indulge in manipulating and contravening these laws. It is regrettable that some officers, even after thorough training on how to go about their duties, have decided to disregard their training and flout laid-down rules and regulations.”

    He said street traders and hawkers were found to be responsible for vandalising and defacing the environment.

    The commissioner warned LAGESC and other officers in the environment sector to adhere to the public service code of conduct, as government would not hesitate to prosecute anyone found contravening the laws.

    Durosinmi-Etti urged residents to be wary of overzealous officers or those with dubious character.

    He asked the public to report the activities of such officers to the ministry.

  • Eid: Lagos, Ogun police assure residents of safety

    The police yesterday said adequate security measures have been put in place to ensure Nigerians enjoyed hitch-free Sallah holiday.

    This is just as they warned miscreants, criminal elements to repent or be apprehended.

    Lagos Police Commissioner Imohimi Edgal said the command would embark on a show of force today to reassure residents of its readiness to confront criminals.

    Noting that the exercise would begin 6am and end 4pm, Edgal said it was designed to send a clear warning to criminal elements that the police and sister agencies would give no room for evil and anti-social acts.

    “The operation is to assure residents of the readiness of the command to provide adequate security throughout the Sallah holiday and beyond.

    “Members of the public are advised not to panic when they see policemen marching through their streets with security assets. The operation is not to cause fear or intimidation. Any inconvenience caused by this operation is not intended.  We seek the cooperation of residents while the activity lasts.”

    His Ogun State counterpart Ahmed Iliyasu has directed the deployment of elaborate tactical and undercover detectives to strategic places across the state with the mandate to stop person(s) who would want to cause panic, fear.

    According to the Commissioner, specialised units have also been put on alert to contain any violent crime, adding that he has directed 24-hour surveillance at all prayer grounds, recreational facilities in the state.

  • Lawmaker donates buildings to constituency

    A member of the House of Representatives Hon. Taofeek Adaranijo has advised his colleagues to support the Lagos State government in making life better for the residents.

    He spoke during the inauguration of blocks of classrooms named after some traditional rulers at Moses Orimolade Primary School, Orile Agege and Anwarul Islam Primary, Oniwaya, Dopemu, Lagos.

    He said the projects serve as complement to the huge investment of the Lagos State government in the education sector and other developmental projects.

    He added it would provide the right atmosphere that is conducive enough for teaching and learning, noting that it was the responsibility of government to ensure that children receive quality education.

    Adaranijo also said he sponsored motions to curb the casualisation of labour, stressing that Nigerians were entitled to better condition of service in any employment they found themselves.

    He said: “I have facilitated a motion on the deplorable condition of the Lagos-Abule Egba Bridge construction through House of Representatives loan approved for Lagos State government.

    “I financed computer training and empowerment for some of our youths in Agege. My office, in collaboration with National Directorate of Employment (NDE) trained over 100 youths.

    “We have trained some people in barbing, GSM repairs, confectionaries, make up, bead making and event management. In addition, we sank six boreholes and carried out other constituency projects,” he said.

    Contributing, the Speaker Lagos State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa urged lawmakers to contribute their quota to the development of Lagos State through projects execution.

    He added that the effort of federal lawmaker would go a long way to boost education in the state, stressing that those who had the buildings named after them should help in maintaining them to keep their legacy.

    He said: “Being in the House is not just about lawmaking. You should be able to do beyond that just like Adaranijo had done through physical projects.

  • Psychiatric hospital reunites 120 inmates with families

    The psychiatric hospital in Eket local government area of Akwa Ibom state has treated and discharged no fewer than 120 inmates and reunited them with their families.

    The official, a medical doctor, who did not want to be named, disclosed to journalists during an interaction that the rehabilitation and re-integration exercise took place on June 7.

    He said the patients were delivered to their various families within and outside the state by the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare.

    “Thursday was a day to discharge and integrate these former lunatics with their families; this year, government embarked on a mop up exercise and brought the lunatics to psychiatric hospital for two months.

    “They were under intensive psychotic care in the hospital for two months before they were discharged to their families.

    ” During the two months they were in the psychiatric hospital, the rate of lunatics on the streets of Eket, Ikot Ekpene and Uyo reduced because the exercise was targeted at the three LGAs.

    “The government has done well to take them away from the streets to reduce the nuisance they constituted to the public.

    Read Also: Ibom Specialist Hospital records first neuro surgery

    “These people will be with their families, take their medications and come back after one month for their medical check-up,” he said.

    “These inmates who have received treatment did not go to their relatives on their own; the ministry of women affairs and social welfare took them to their relatives.

    “They were taken to their families in Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Imo, Uyo and Cross River.

    “Money was given to them for support and upkeep before their coming back for medical check-up in a month’s time”.

    The official said that during the period that they were at the hospital, a major challenge was insufficient bed spaces.

    ”They were sleeping on the floor due to lack of beds space in the hospital”.

    The medical doctor commended the generosity of Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom and appealed to the relatives and parents of the discharged inmates to complement the efforts of the state government by providing care and love to the people.

    When contacted, Dr. Dominic Ukpong, the Commissioner for Health, Akwa Ibom, confirmed the development but told our correspondent that the exercise was not handled by his ministry.

    “The mop up exercise was not carried out under my ministry but the ministry of women affairs and social welfare.

  • Police probing Lagos 3rd Mainland Bridge suicide – Spokesman

    The Lagos State Police Command on Monday said it had commenced investigation into the report that an unidentified lady allegedly packed her car on the third mainland bridge and jumped into the Lagoon.

    SP Chike Oti, the Command’s Spokesman, told the our reporter that though the police had not received any official report, they were already making efforts to find out the true story.

    He said that the report of their investigation would be made public as soon as the police finds anything.

    “There is no official report yet. It is the news making the rounds. However, our rescue team is searching, divers and Marine policemen are working.

    “Investigation is ongoing, findings will be made public please,” the police spokesman said.

    NAN learnt that the purported incident was said to have happened at about 8.45 p.m. on Sunday.

  • Lagos, SOS partners on child care

    The Lagos State Ministry of Youths and Social Development and SOS Children’s Village, Nigeria has partnered on alternative child care in Lagos State.

    Speaking at the capacity building and stakeholders engagement, with the theme, ‘No child should grow up alone’, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Youths and Social Development, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, said government and organisations must continue in their efforts to define and identify systems of informal care and recognise its importance in embracing vulnerable children.

    According to him, the primary importance of alternative care for children is to keep them in when traumatised, and return to the care of their family when they are stabilised or find another appropriate care and permanent solution, that is a family.

    “Every child regardless of gender,, socio economic status,  ability and ethnic background has the right to live in a supportive, protective and caring environment that promotes his or her full potential.

    “Lagos state as a responsive government establishes various units and department to care for this category of children. We have government homes and approved private orphanages; they are not meant to institutionalise the children but to serve as a transit home to stabilise whatever traumatic experience the children might have gone through before they are either released to their biological parents, guardians, and relatives or adopted/fostered to willing and qualified homes.

    He urged stakeholders to work together and understand the impact of institutions on children, take measures to prevent the institutionalising of children and commit to transformation of family-based system of welfare and protection. “We must be actively imaged and be a part of the development of Child protection systems and the decision making process that directly affects them,” he said.

    National Director, SOS Children’s Villages, Nigeria, Eghosa Erhumwunse, said the program was to bring stakeholders together to talk about issues surrounding alternative care for children.

    He said idea was also to deinstitutionalise children, noting that children should have access to education, health, be able to interact in their community and be able to build good self-esteem.

    “When we deinstitutionalise children, they will be able to achieve their full potentials. We must strengthen families to prevent children moving away from their family homes to care centres, but we must also consider if the alternative care will enable the child to achieve their full potentials.

    “We need to educate children and the society at large to know and report cases of all forms of abuses. The reporting and responding mechanism also needs to be strengthened. “

    He said part of the observations at the stakeholders meeting shows that there is the need to have a holistic look at care system and provide broad solutions, noting that people who are meant to protect the children are in most cases abusing them.

    “Priority should be to work together to create a system in strengthening parents to provide quality care for children. Cases pertaining to children should be reported to the right law enforcement officers who are trained and deployed to handle such incidents and stakeholders should work tirelessly to build synergy.

    “Sufficient human and financial resources should be allocated by government to allow social welfare packages for families and children at risk. There should be prompt action in embracing De-institutionalization in the wake of extreme financial and economic difficulties. There should be family strengthening and empowerment programmes in place for vulnerable parents. There should be continuous sensitisation of the people on the Child Rights Law and it should be studied carefully by all stakeholders to understand the provisions therein,” he said.

     

  • Lagos plans 24-hour resolution of complaints

    The Lagos State government has revealed plans to resolve all complaints among residents within 24 hours.

    The Director of Public Advice Centre (PAC), an agency under the state’s Ministry of Justice, Mrs Omololu Adesina, broke the news in her office at Alausa in Ikeja, the state capital.

    Mrs Adesina, who resumed two weeks ago as PAC’s Director, said she planned to fast-track the process whereby Lagosians would have their complaints resolved within 24 hours.

    She added: “PAC is the first point of call for citizens to lodge complaints. My plan is to ensure that reports that come to us can get to the required authority to attend to them via email. They will receive them, act on them immediately and give us feedback so that in less than 24 hours, all complaints that come to PAC will be attended to and the desired result of the complainer will be achieved.

    “It would be good if we can achieve this. All the ministries and agencies should be ready for us and have somebody assigned to attend to us. The long process of writing and delivering letters could be prevented if we all work with emails.”

    Mrs Adesina said PAC is an initiative of the state government, adding that it is supposed to be the first point of call for citizens if they need to get in touch with any office under the state government.

    She said: “Lagosians are to come to us first in case of any need, complaint or petition. We will, on their behalf, forward their grievances, petitions and complaints to the appropriate authority and ensure the requests are attended to appropriately and as quickly as possible.”

    The PAC chief said residents could contact the agency about any issue that has to do with service by the government and non-governmental bodies.

    Mrs Adesina said: “Government levies taxes on people and those in return are supposed to provide citizens with the services they require.

    “We have a platform where complaints can be lodged and our Public Relations Officer (PRO) is quick to forward any issue to whichever ministry is responsible to attend to it and the feedback is reported back on the platform.

    “We give people relief when their rights are = violated. We address the issues of breach of contract, family or relationship issues, issues of child abuse, domestic violence or sexual harassment, as well as issues relating to work benefit in terms of compensation, salary denial and pension gratuity, among others.

    “We also attend to medical issues. We deal with every issue; we cover all spheres of life. There is nothing that you want from government that we cannot attend to. We have over 70 agencies and over 23 ministries in Lagos State. There is none that we cannot contact to tender the report and have all issues sorted out. If the issue is not government-related, we will also do it and all issues would be sorted out within the shortest possible time.”

    She urged Lagosians to live in peace, abide by the law and prevent violence.

    The PAC chief said all complaints can be sent to 07037466114 for prompt resolution.

  • $12,000 up for grabs at Moorhouse-Epe Cycle Race

     

    A total prize money of $12,000 (About N4.3million) will be won at the maiden edition of the Moorhouse-Epe Cycle Race scheduled to hold in Epe Town in Lagos State on Sunday, 30th September, 2018, the eve of Independence Day.

    According to the organizers, Moorhouse Properties, the event would be divided into several categories and would accommodate secondary school children, professionals, and veterans (amateurs).

    The course will be an 18-kilometre undulating circuit within and around Epe Town on smooth roads newly reconstructed by Lagos State.  Participants will take in the main sights of the town, the gateway to Epe, the Marina, and the hinterland as the hilly topography of Epe Town is certain to make for an intense ride. Professional cyclists from around Nigeria, Africa and Europe have already indicated interest to participate in the Moorhouse-Epe Cycle Race.

    “We are proud to be part of this because as a hospitality company, we want to promote tourism and this serves as an opportunity to do just that,” said Mr. Bruce Prins of Moor House Properties.

    Project Manager, Habiba Balogun confirmed that female participants will race the same distances and have an equal share of prize monies as their male counterparts.  Professionals will cover a distance of 108km, while the distance for veterans (amateurs) is 54km.

    The first, second and third place finishers will be rewarded with equal prize monies of $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 prizes respectively in both male and female categories. There will also be lots of consolation prizes to win for the first ten finishers as well as categories for best team and displays of skill, strategy & stamina. A separate race will be held for the schoolchildren over one 18km lap.

    To entertain residents and tourists for the Independence Day weekend of 29th and 30th September and 1st October, 2018, the organisers will be working with the community, that is famous for its fishing, to line up other local events such as a boat regatta, live music at its two prominent leisure resorts, Jubilee Chalets Epe, and Epe Resort, as well as food, drink & entertainment on the newly reconstructed Marina. “A carnival-like weekend is what we anticipate,” project manager, Habiba Balogun said.

    “The purpose of the event is to encourage a healthy and active lifestyle, as well as to promote Epe Town as a tourism destination,” Balogun said.

  • It all started in Lagos

    Since it crept into the calendar of national holidays, Southwest states, under the progressive umbrella, especially Lagos, have never reckoned with May 29 as the Democracy Day.

    The ‘real’ Democracy Day is June 12, 1993, when Nigerians shoved aside religion and ethnicity to vote a candidate of their choice, Chief Moshood Abiola as president.

    It was learnt that leaders of thought advised then president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo to organise a nationwide thanksgiving in appreciation of the enthronement of democracy. But, in his inaugural speech, Obasanjo proclaimed May 29 as Democracy Day.

    However, save for the holiday that was declared, the first anniversary of Democracy Day was without any activity in the Centre of Excellence. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who held forte as governor, proclaimed from the outset June 12 as Democracy Day.

    He demonstrated faith in June 12 by building monuments in public spaces to immortalise those who staked their lives in the battle to actualise the results of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.

    Some of such cenotaphs are for the acclaimed winner of the poll, Abiola, at Ojota; his wife and “Heroine of Democracy” Kudirat Abiola near the old Toll Gate Plaza at the Ojota end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the giant-size statue of Campaign for Democracy (CD) chieftain Beko Ransome-Kuti at Anthony.

    Tinubu’s successor, Babatunde Fashola, built the Freedom Park for rights’ crusader Gani Fawehinmi at Ojota. All the monuments are being maintained by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

    For the eight years that Tinubu was in the saddle, lectures and symposia were organised to keep the hope alive.

    All the Southwest states but Lagos observed May 29 as Democracy Day between 2003 and 2007 following the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “tsunami” that dislodged the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in its stronghold.

    Former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu was so enamored by the agitation for the revalidation of the election that he declared June 12 as holiday in the Southeast state, despite being under PDP.

    Beginning from next year, Democracy Day will no longer be observed on May 29, following the proclamation by President Muhammadu Buhari that “June 12th, 1993 was the day when Nigerians in millions, expressed their democratic will in what was undisputedly the freest, fairest and most peaceful elections since our Independence.”

    The President said: “The investiture will take place on Tuesday, June 12th, 2018, a date which in future years will replace May 29th, in celebration of Nigeria Democarcy Day.”